sound card in use

(I'm new to the lounge, so I hope I'm doing this right.) Sometimes a program with sound will tie up my sound card, so other sounds won't play. Is there a way to free up the sound card without rebooting?

Re: sound card in use

Thanks for the response. Here's what happens: I'll play a Java script game on a web site (lately it's Bounce Out on Yahoo games). Then when I run something with sound, like an AVI file, I get no sound. To check it out I went to Control Panel > Sounds, and tried to play a sound, and I got a message saying Windows could not play the sound, that my sound card may be in use. I understand (more or less) how this happens, and that something has been loaded into RAM (a Java plug-in gets loaded when I open the game) which is still there even when I stop playing the game. I'd like to know if there is some way I can free up the sound card without rebooting.

I don't know if this matters, but I just went back to the game page. It loaded another Java plug-in, and now the game has no sound either.

Re: sound card in use

You should wait to see if another Lounger has an answer for you, 'cause I admit I don't either. I run into this (or a similar) problem whenever I use the Yahoo Stat Tracker for my fantasy football league. Sound isn't involved, but that JVM (or whatever it is) running in my Tray does disturb a few other things and the only way I've found to turn it loose is a REBOOT, I'm afraid. Anybody else got any ideas?

It's kinda like the doctor said about "it hurts when I do this, doctor." Answer: "Don't do that any more!" <img src=/S/bouncenburn.gif border=0 alt=bouncenburn width=31 height=31>